The Solution

According to the UN, 250 HIV+ babies are born in South Africa everyday, and HIV/AIDS is currently the leading cause of death for children under the age of 5 in South Africa, accounting for 40% of the deaths of these children. Sadly, as I look at this, all that I see is a number.

Every Friday, we are given the opportunity to pour into the lives of kids at a local orphanage called Hope House. For one day out of their week, they get to forget about their norm and maybe for the first time be shown God’s love. Forget the fact that they do not have parents, or forget that they have parents who cannot afford to take care of them, or forget the pain that they feel on a daily basis;

One boy in particular that comes to mind is 11-month old Nkosi. The only thing that he has ever known in his life is pain. A life filled with tears and cries for help since he was born, only because he was brought into this world with an incurable disease. The fact that he cries less now doesn’t mean that he has less pain, but that the pain has become part of his everyday life, and crying is no longer satisfying. AIDS is destroying his body, withering him away to nothing.

No longer do I just see a number, but now I see a face to the number. The fact that this young boy was given no chance leaves me to believe that the only bit of God’s love that he will ever see is in others, is in me. I challenge each one of you, as well as myself, to approach each day knowing that this life withers away quickly, and to approach each person as if they have no reason to believe that God loves them. To these people, God did give a solution: “you are the light of the world.” We are that solution! Let’s embrace each day knowing that we could be God’s love to someone else.